Peppermint

Peppermint (Mentha ×piperita), strongly aromatic perennialherb of the mint family (Lamiaceae). Peppermint has a strong sweetish odour and a warm pungent taste with a cooling aftertaste. The leaves are typically used fresh as a culinary herb, and the flowers are dried and used to flavour candy, desserts, beverages, salads, and other foods. Its essential oil is also widely used as a flavouring. The plant is a hybrid between watermint (Mentha aquatica) and spearmint (M. spicata) and is cultivated in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Peppermint has square stems, stalked, smooth, dark green leaves, and blunt oblong clusters of pinkish lavender flowers. As with other mints, the plant can spread aggressively by means of stolons (underground stems). Natural hybridization among wild species has yielded many varieties of peppermint, but only two, the black and the white, are recognized by growers. Black peppermint, also called English peppermint or mitcham mint, is extensively grown in the United States and has purplish stems. The white variety is less hardy and less productive, but its oil is considered more delicate in odour and obtains a higher price.

Oil of peppermint, a volatile essential oil distilled with steam from the herb, is widely used for flavouring confectionery, chewing gum, dentifrices, and medicines. Pure oil of peppermint is nearly colourless. It consists principally of menthol and menthone. Menthol, also called mint camphor or peppermint camphor, has long been used medicinally as a soothing balm.

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parts of various plants cultivated for their aromatic, pungent, or otherwise desirable substances. Spices and herbs consist of rhizomes, bulbs, barks, flower buds, stigmas, fruits, seed s, and leaves. They are commonly divided into the categories of spices, spice seeds, and herbs.

highly volatile substance isolated by a physical process from an odoriferous plant of a single botanical species. The oil bears the name of the plant from which it is derived; for example, rose oil or peppermint oil. Such oils were called essential because they were thought to represent the very...

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Peppermint is an aromatic perennial herb that is widely used in flavoring. It has a strong, sweetish odor and a warm, pungent taste with a cooling aftertaste. The flowers are dried and used to flavor candy, desserts, beverages, salads, and other foods, while oil of peppermint is used to flavor sweets, chewing gum, toothpastes, and medicines. Pure peppermint oil is nearly colorless and consists principally of menthol and menthone. Menthol, also called mint camphor or peppermint camphor, has long been used medicinally as a soothing balm. The scientific name of peppermint is Mentha piperita.

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